October 8, 2007

Sprinkles: Sleepless in Seattle

Seattle: Paul Allen will be joining the MLS Seattle ownership group. If you don't know him, he's the fifth richest American according to Forbes. He's a chairman of two huge businesses, and he owns the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks. There were rumors earlier this year about Allen being interested in a takeover of Southampton FC, but they were denied.

Allen's involvement will keep the team at Qwest, which has upset some of the people who think MLS teams must be in soccer specific stadiums to thrive. I loved my visit to Qwest, even with a small Sounders crowd only on one side of the stadium. The design of the stadium allows you do some pretty cool things to block off the upper deck, and the lower bowl seats 30K. That should work quite nicely.

It's not so much the size of the stadium that matters, it's the control of the revenues.

New York: "I haven't talked to Claudio at all about next season," says Bruce Arena. Poor Claudio, he's been the biggest bust of the DP crop this year. As much as I love mocking him, I would feel kind of bad if he retires after this sorry season. However, he's so injury prone that I don't think he can last another year.

Colorado: The reserve team has repeated as the Reserve Division champions this season. What does that say about the first team, when they're going to miss out on the playoffs?

DC: RFK is being remade now that the Nationals are done with the stadium. All the baseball stuff is being pulled out, and the field has been redone with a real/synthetic turf blend like the Big Unit in Colorado. Also, over 20K tickets have been sold so far for the MLS Cup final.

Josh Gros suffered another head injury in Guadalajara and didn't travel with the team to Kansas City for Friday night's game. A number of other players were suffering with "stomach ailments", which makes the draw a little more impressive.

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